Draw More

Ever since I worked in Irv Teppers studio I've been trying to draw more. Specifically using it as a way to explore the parameters of an idea. The point, perhaps, is that good artwork is not necessarily about exacting an object or a design, rather creating the object or design as you see it. My favorite example of this is Giaccometti:The result is not a likeness rendered, but the artist effort to find what he percieves as the finished image. It's hard to tell from this pic, but there is a ton of paint on this canvas. He must have painted it on and scratched it out over and over. In the end what we see in the figures features is really a time lapse of Giacommetti's process of bringing what only he can see in to focus. Awesome

objects in love with sculpture in love with architecture

As I am gearing up to make the 100lb batch of high fire stoneware it's going to take to take to cast 4o of these tiles, I've been able to generate a few and start playing around with them. These two hot shots Tom Lauerman and Fabio Fernandez visited my studio after giving a talk at RISD. Lets just say they are on the level, and should probably let me into their little club. I spoke to them about being concerned that the project was a little safe and that the outcome was predictable. As a first year grad student shouldn't I be more experimental? Tom's reaction was that clay is rather unpredictable and you never know whats going to come out. Let it happen, and allow whatever flaws arise to carry you to the next step. Very Wabi Sabi. Check out Tom and Fabio's collaboration, Sculptures in love with Architecture.

The Great Irv Tepper

There are two things the great Irv Tepper knows a lot about.

1) Mugs. In addition to making porcelain cups of all sizes that explore the visual language and character of fragility through controlled deformation, Irv also collects cups as well. Lets just say they are like wet Mogwai- they're everywhere.

2) The ability to completely and totally ignore a refrigerator full of smoked whitefish and broccoli, for a month. To be fair it was in fact architect Richard Rappaport who opened the unplugged refrigerator, spilling its unsavory contents across the studio floor. Pandora's stinky stinky box...

Creepy Baby

I found this creepy Asian doll head mold in the plaster room. It's one of those industrially produced doll parts molds. Granted the doll parts/assemblage thing is pretty much ubiquitous, I just couldn't help myself. Perhaps it is a rite of passage, or an itch one simply must scratch until it bleeds. After opening the mold from the first cast I said, "Oh man, I am totally gonna cut those eyes out.". Shannon Goff, who was standing next to me said "Do it". Maybe it was a guilty pleasure, but it felt so right.

Minimalism

I have determined that an equilateral footprint with a rectangular lofted surface is preferable to an equilateral surface. Unfortunately I have also determined that I'll need 36 just to execute the design properly. Question: wall or floor? Perhaps both?

Terunobu Fujimori

Chainsaw Please.

Take a Trip with Billy Pilgrim.

Yesterday after a few graduate crits I came to one of those conclusions that I keep coming back to. I need to stop worrying about refinement. It can come later. There is no real need to polish a thought before you dive into the making. Follow the yellow brick road, take a trip with Billy Pilgrim.
This sink is a perfect example analytical design purism. Check it: Line, plane, volume in near academic proportions and thus pleasing to the eye- Dominant, sub dominant, subordinate. Yet, it is cold, and well, finished. Its done, and can be remade over and over again with whatever proportional variations one chooses. For this we must beware. As Riders of the Storm, or the Purple Sage, we must be willing venture into the dark and break from formal tradition, even such proven groupings as this.